Various: La Habana Era Una Fiesta 2-CD

(2011/Vampisoul) 36 tracks digipac with 20 page booklet.Original recordings from the golden age of Cuban radio: Double CD of
1940s and 1950s recordings made at various Havana radio stations where
Cuban musicians were playing Spanish songs and viceversa, Spanish
artists that went to Cuba got influenced by the Cuban feeling. It's an
anthropological labour of love by legendary Spanish music producer Mario
Pacheco, originally intended to come out on his Nuevos Medios record
label until Mario passed away last December. All tracks previously
unreleased.
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When Havana was a party, many Spaniards joined the dance. In this
process of transculturation, which came from way back, music and
musicians played an essential part. Having arrived from Spain, artists
of the song and theatre contributed to define the DNA of Cuban popular
music. At the same time, other musicians brought in essential aspects of
Afro Cuban folklore to the Spanish song. In a stroke of ineffable good
fortune, music has always played an intrinsic role between Cuba and
Spain.

It was an elemental process: after the Spanish disaster of 1898,
emigrants and soldiers, wine-producers and sailors arrived or stayed in
Cuba, and with them their customs and habits. With the children of the
metropolis, the companies of popular singers, zarzuela groups, and
costumbrista theatre arrived. Also the music from Andalusia, traditional
dancing, and genuine flamenco soon disembarked in the port of San
Cristóbal de la Habana. On their way back, when they left Cuba, the
ships with the gold from America also carried new melodies and
rhythmical cells, harmonic gyrations, and choreographed elements of
Afro-American inspiration.

On firm ground, the native Spanish colony in Cuba kept growing in
numbers and importance. Half a century later, there were five million
residents in Cuba. At the beginning of the 50s, one million of them
resided in Havana. And there were 120,000 people who were associated to
one of the many emigrant clubs founded in the city. It was there, in the
halls of the societies of emigrants from Galicia, Asturias, Andalusia
and the Canary Islands, where the music from both shores embraced. In
décimas and folk songs, the poetic expression of Cubans and Spaniards
took root on the singers' island. The landing of Spanish music in Cuba
stood out in Havana with musical theatre of which operas and zarzuelas
were always played as if in the old country.

The visits from Carmen Amaya, Conchita Piquer, Juanita Reina, and
Imperio Argentina were lauded. From the mid-30s until approximately
1960, leading Cuban radio stations such as CMQ and Radio Progreso hired
the most famous Spanish artists (and also many hustlers who came to
America looking for riches) to broadcast the performances and variety
shows with live music of Los Chavales de España, Los Bocheros or Los
Churumbeles. The extensive reach of radio and cinema, together with the
growing popularization of vinyl, enabled the quick commercial expansion
of Cuban music with arrangements of danzón orchestras, sextets of son
cubano, and jazz bands Cuban-style. From Rita Montaner and Bola de Nieve
to MiguelitoValdés, Antonio Machín, Julio Cuevas, Bebo Valdés and
Armando Oréfiche. With them, Havana was a party. Half a century before
the Buena Vista Social Club....Carlos Fuentes.